3 out of 5

Label: Paper Bag Records

Produced by: Jace Lasek

I know that, for me, the swoony, fuzzy, occasionally chaotic dreampop of The Luyas can take a few spins to fully appreciate. It’s never difficult to do commit to that with their works. But I began to wonder, several such spins in to Human Voicing, why I wasn’t able to settle into the music. The tracks were all solid, juggled between shoegaze haze, and 80s tinged pop, and loud, beat-heavy miasma; standard Luyas fare, with Jessie Stein’s flat but emotive voice vaguely following plucked guitar lines, while she repeats vague phrases that sound just on the edge of meaning and darkness…

Again, standard. But things felt a bit off this time.

A little background provided a puzzle piece: that this session had a bit of improvisation involved; the already loose structure of the band thus becomes just a note looser; Stein’s erring toward purposeful lyrics perhaps, this time, lean more toward surrealism, though a sense of longing does come through.

This translates to the music as well, but is equally open-ended: even when being more bombastic, with the clattering drums of Self-Unemployed, or the pulsing beat of Beating Bowser, the songs are taking their time, arguably going nowhere. While this would sink most bands, Luyas do revel in that space: as already mentioned, the expansivess of this disc isn’t new, but there is an extra glistening to the production – a softening – that seems suggestive of the overall approach, which wants to make sure all of these experiences have some padding. That longing is not sad, just present; riffs and melodies are not the standout aspects of the song, so much as vibes. But Human Voicing never resolves any of that.

On the one hand, The Luyas confidence in that approach is admirable; on the other hand, it ultimately limits the impact of the music, even if its reach goes quite far.